(“Where the grass isn’t greener,” Boulderganic, March 28.) These high-use customers drive the need for increased supply, which all customers have to pay for. A gas electric plant costs in the neighborhood of $80 million. Should we all have to pay increased rates, or just the customers who use twice the average or more? For the MJ growers this is a business expense. For the rest of residents it is a living expense. There should be a tiered rate for growers.
Fred Kirsch/via Internet
Erie mayor is promoting his own agenda
Mayor Joe Wilson, in the scheme of things, is now using the Town of Erie’s publication “The Erie Edition” as his own personal soapbox mailed bimonthly with our water bill. Every Erie resident receives one. The methods of promoting his own agenda and beliefs have gone beyond tolerable limits.
Some of Mayor Joe’s articles are neither mind-boggling nor earth-shattering, but it is a government-produced newsletter and Erie citizens are not allowed to share their ideas or opinions in this publication. Once again, it looks like we citizens are being used as government pawns. Let me give you a few examples of his obstruction of justice in journalism as printed in the current March/April Erie Edition.
Headlines:
Daily Camera: “Erie’s oil & gas agreement could serve as statewide model.” This article goes in favor of major players in Big Oil and Gas. The facts are that we citizens were sold out by our elected representatives on the hydraulic fracking issue to Big Oil and Gas. Bottom line is … our Town Board dropped the ball and lifted the ban on fracking.
The Denver Post: “A closer look at Colorado air quality.” This article involved oil and gas and clean air. Of course, with major supporters of oil and gas Mayor Joe and Governor John (drinking hydraulic fracking fluid) Hickenlooper. Or should I say “Frackenlooper?” Need I say more?
Hometown Weekly: “Once again Erie’s air and water have shown to be clean … Very clean, in fact.” This article was submitted to the Weekly by Mayor Joe with another ascerbic comment: “When dealing with pollution levels created by oil and gas emissions, you should know that gas and oil well sites are safer than the car drop-off areas at Erie’s elementary schools.”
Perhaps the most disturbing and obvious is Mayor Joe’s overwhelming difficulty to see the other side of the coin. He should employ a bit of diplomacy before reporting information filled with skepticism and facts that have not been proven to be true.
David L. Johnson/Erie
End Obama’s ‘double taps’
President Obama’s drone strike program has come under increasing criticism from many quarters. A study by Stanford and New York University showed that the civilian casualty rate from Obama’s drone strikes is between 90 percent and 95 percent. Another study by the Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute found that in Pakistan, as many as 98 percent of those killed by Obama’s drone strikes are civilians. The United Nations has been arguing that Obama’s drone strikes violate international law. Lawyers for the British High Court have been insisting that Obama’s drone strikes are illegal.
Recently, reports have been surfacing in the press about Obama’s “Double Tap” program. Under Obama’s Double Tap program, an American military drone fires a missile at a house or apartment building, then comes back a few minutes later and fires a second missile into exactly the same spot. The second missile kills the family and friends who come to help the wounded. The second missile also kills the firefighters and paramedics who come to tend to the wounded. This is clearly barbaric behavior on Obama’s part and is a war crime too.
For Obama, as commander in chief of the Armed Forces of the United States, to authorize and implement a program that intentionally kills paramedics and firefighters is unforgivable.
United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Christof Heyns said, “Secondary strikes on rescuers who are helping the injured are war crimes.” Clive Stafford-Smith, the lawyer who heads the Anglo-U.S. Charity Reprieve, says that such strikes “are like attacking the Red Cross on the battlefield.”
Write Obama and demand that he immediately cease his Double Tap program. Do it today before he kills any more rescuers.
George Newell/Boulder
Horse burgers
Food safety officials in the U.K., France and Sweden found traces of horsemeat in ground beef sold in Europe. Recalls and lawsuits ensued.
Can it happen here? Horse slaughter for human consumption was banned in the U.S. between 2007 and 2011. But now, a New Mexico slaughterhouse is getting approved by U.S. authorities to slaughter horses for human consumption, and a Philadelphia restaurant has already announced plans to serve horsemeat.
I marvel at our hypocrisy of rejecting the notion of horse or dog meat on our dinner plates, while condemning cows, pigs and chickens to the same fate. Obviously, we have established special relationships with horses and dogs as our companions, protectors and sports protagonists, rather than as food. But where is the ethical and logical distinction, given that all these animals are endowed by individuality, sentience and an ability to experience the same feelings of joy, affection, sadness and fear that we do?
Fortunately, our health food industry has spared us from having to choose which animals to pet and which ones to eat. Their delicious soy and grain-based meat alternatives are available in every supermarket.
Stanley Silver/Boulder
